What Would You Choose: Homeownership or Voting?

Question: Would you give up your right to vote in order to become a homeowner? That admittedly unusual question was among several posed to 1,000 potential buyers in an Atomik Research survey conducted on behalf of San Francisco-based Unison Home Ownership Investors.

 

When asked if they would surrender their right to vote in exchange for a 10 percent down payment that they did not need to return, 22 percent of respondents said they would be voluntarily withdraw from election participation. Within the different age demographics, Millennials (26 percent) were more likely than Gen X (20 percent) and Baby Boomers (seven percent) to stop voting, while men (24 percent) were more likely than women (21 percent) to turn their backs on the ballot box.

 

Among the other questions, 44 percent of respondents said they would give up their dream car and 38 percent would give up vacationing for the next five years if they could get their hands on a new home, while 58 percent of those surveyed admitted they were more likely to date or marry someone who already owned a home at the time their relationship began. Still, many of the respondents were not eager to make such extreme sacrifices for the sake of homeownership:
84 percent said it would take them under four years to save for a down payment, while 67 percent were confident enough to insist they can buy a home in the next one to two years with under $7,000 saved.

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